Saturday, November 10, 2012

Reform Baath-Style!

The more things change in the SNC, the worse they become. But
we cannot keep blaming the SNC for what is essentially a cultural malaise of our
educated elite, a group where ideologies and parochial interests have long
become intertwined with and mistaken for national interests. The sacrifices
that our people are making will not go in vain, an idol has been smashed and
the status quo has been irrevocably shattered, but we still have hell to go through
before democracy, development and dignity can be reached.

Friday November
09, 2012

Today’s
Death Toll:136.The Breakdown: Toll
includes 11 children and 7 women: 33 in Damascus and suburbs, 33 in Deir Ezzor
(most in Qourieh), 19 in Aleppo, 12 in Idlib, 10 in Hama, 10 in Homs, 9 in
Daraa, 2 in Raqqah, 1 in Hassakeh and 1 in Qunaitera. Other Developments: LCC documented 176 points
of random shelling by regime forces: 17 by war jets, 4 using explosive barrels,
65 by mortars, 56 by artillery and 38 by rockets. Rebels clashed with loyalists
in 81 points. 446 anti-regime rallies took place. 97 in Idlib, 83
in Hama 72 in Aleppo, 64 in Deir Ezzor, 51 in Damascus and Suburbs, 43 in Daraa,
17 in Homs, 14 in Hassakeh and 5 in Lattakia (LCC).

As rebels took
control of the border crossing into Turkey near the town of Ras Al-Ain/Seri
Kaniye, they clashed with armed Kurdish rebels affiliated with PYD party, and the
local Kurdish local population was not happy seeing Islamist rebels coming into
their town. The situation in the majority-Kurdish city remains pretty tense. In
other Kurdish-majority cities in Hassakeh, especially Amude and Derbassiyeh,
local Kurdish groups moved to kick out the remains of Assad’s security officials
and assumed direct control of their cities in order to consolidate their hold
and prevent arrival by Islamist rebels. In the Kurdish –majority town of Kobani
north of Aleppo, PYD militias fired at a rally organized by other Kurdish
groups, in a sign of growing rivalry and tension between different Kurdish
groups.

News

Thousands
flee Syria in exodus, millions more need aidThe U.N. said 11,000
refugees had fled in 24 hours, mostly to Turkey. The influx caused alarm in
Ankara, which is worried about its ability to cope with such large numbers and
has pushed hard, so far without success, for a buffer zone to be set up inside
Syria where refugees could be housed.

UN:
Syria 'Dramatically Deteriorating'The United Nations says the huge
upsurge in the number of civilians fleeing Syria reflects the dramatically
deteriorating situation in that country. Aid officials estimate that 2.5
million civilians still inside Syria need humanitarian assistance.

While much recent media attention has
been focused on Hurricane Sandy and America's presidential election, Syria's
horrific civil war continues. In some places, it has worsened. Aerial
bombardment of civilian neighborhoods, deadly sniper fire, brutal street
fighting, assassinations, and summary executions have become the norm in Syria.
Cease-fire agreements have collapsed, rebel forces remain disorganized, foreign
intervention is still hamstrung, and no path to peace appears to be forming
yet. Britain is now reportedly looking for options to circumvent an arms
embargo in order to supply rebels with weaponry. Syrian President Bashar
al-Assad remains defiant, stating in an interview with Russia Today that he
planned "live and die in Syria," adding, "I am tougher than
Gaddafi." Collected here are images of this bloody conflict from just the
past few weeks.

On numerous occasions, America has
cited concerns that disorganization within the rebel ranks is allowing foreign
jihadists to gain a foothold and acquire some of the money and weapons flowing
into Syria. But as long as it stands on the sidelines, America risks looking
weak, while the very extremists it fears seem to be gaining more influence.

The rebel shortcomings have been compounded
by changes in the opposition, from a force of civilians and defected soldiers
who took up arms after the government used lethal force on peaceful protesters
to one that is increasingly seeded with extremist jihadis. That radicalization
has divided the fighters’ supporters and made Western nations more reluctant to
give rebels the arms that might help break the intensifying deadlock. Instead,
foreign leaders are struggling to find indirect ways to help oust Syria’s
president, Bashar al-Assad.

There long-heralded restructuring of the Syrian National Council (SNC)
and the expansion of its membership base by including more members in the
General Assembly did not produce the promised diversity or change. If anything,
the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) and its Islamist sympathizers, long believed to be
the real power behind the scene in the Council, assumed more direct overt
control of the elected General Secretariat and the Executive Council. Of the 41
members elected to the General Secretariat, 31 are Islamists, No women were
elected, and 4 members of minority groups were chosen (2 Kurds and 2
Christians). As for the Executive Council, the table below should make things
clear. But George Sabra, the Christian teacher who was “elected” as head of the
SNC’s Executive Committee, was not initially elected to the General
Secretariat, he was appointed in retrospect then picked as head of the SNC to
water down its Islamist image.

Before the MB settled on Sabra, however, they floated the name of Ahmad
Ramadan as possible leader. Ahmad, a shadowy figure who never was part of
opposition circles and whose emergence on the scene and previous activities
remain shrouded in mystery, is one of the most reviled members of the SNC.
Stories of his double-dealings and his attempts to establish his own private
militias in the country have long turned sentiments against him. But he remains
ambitious, and is believed to be one of the key power brokers in the Council,
and even MB, although he is not officially a member. The storm of protest that
greeted the mere suggestion that Ahmad could be selected as the new SNC head
dissuaded him from pursuing this matter at this stage allowing for the section
of Sabra. Sabra came under major critic from previous sympathizers and
colleagues for accepting this position. All accused him of putting personal
ambitions over principles. Sabra has become just another secular figure burnt
by affiliation with SNC.

Name

Political Background

Ethnic Background

Regional Background

Comment

George Sabra

Communist

Christian

Damascus Suburbs

Abdel-Ahad Steifo

Assyrian Democratic Organization

Assyrian

Hassakeh

Long-time ally of the Brotherhood

Abdulbassit Sieda

Independent

Kurd/Sunni

Hassakeh

Long-time ally of the Brotherhood

Ahmad Ramadan

Islamist

Sunni

Aleppo

One of the key players in SNC

Khalid Al-Salih

Independent

Tribal/Sunni

Deir Ezzor or Raqqah

Salim Al-Mislit

Independent

Tribal/Sunni

Hassakeh

Tribal leader

Hussein Al-Sayyid

MB

Sunni

Idlib

Hisham Marwa

Islamist

Sunni

Damascus

Lawyer, lives in U.S.

Jamal Al-Ward

Islamist

Sunni

Lattakia

Lives in U.S.

Farouq Tayfour

MB

Sunni

Hama

One of the key leaders of the MB

Nazir Al-Hakeem

MB

Sunni

Aleppo

SNC spokespeople have said that a woman or two might get appointed to
the General Secretariat as well and perhaps one could be appointed to the
Executive Council.

Meanwhile, SNC delegate postponed their participation in discussions
over the plan for transitional government proposed by long-time dissident Riad
Seif until Saturday.

Following the elections of the Executive Council, the Local
Coordination Committees, the second largest group to take part in the Council
after the Brotherhood, announced that they are withdrawing from the Council.
This move undermines significantly the representation of in-country activists
in the overall makeup of the Council. Many individual withdrawals also
followed.

Despite the positive media spin that SNC leaders are trying to put on
things at this stage, they have never been more irrelevant than they are now.
Some began referring to the SNC as SIC, the Syrian Islamic Council, pun
intended.

At this stage, the SNC cannot be approached as a national body, but
more like a Sunni-dominated coalition representing the aspirations of a
particular segment of the Sunni population. In this shape, SNC leaders cannot
pretend to represent the Syrian people even if they shouted it from the
mountaintop. Their outreach to different rebel groups has always been weak and
problematic, and now any possibility of them being able to reach out to
minority communities has been severely undermined. With its shrinking reach and
appeal, no national role is possible for the SNC in its current format.

All eyes now will turn to Riad Seif and his ongoing effort to put a
transitional government together.

About the Author

Ammar Abdulhamid is a liberal Syrian pro-democracy activist whose anti-regime activities led to his exile in September of 2005. He currently lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with his wife, Khawla Yusuf, and their children, Oula (b.1986) and Mouhanad (b. 1990). He is the founder of the Tharwa Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to democracy promotion. His personal website and entries from his older blogs can be accessed here.